If you want to use this QR code (Quick Response code) just save the image and paste it where you want. You can even print it and use it that way. Coffee cups, T-Shirts etc would all be good for the QR code.

Hello Farinelli, yes was major, major league and gave me life back. May 1994. I was errr.......let me see 2 plus 7 take away 2009 equals.......errr......well if I am 23 now then in 1994 i must have been 44.....lol

yes a wonderful happening for me, one with which I usually bore folks to death so please forgive.

I always look at it in terms of my height.

a strapping 6 feet 5

years of AS taook me too 5 feet 9

Surgeons/docs whom I love and so why I always object to doctor bashing on here took me back to

6 feet 2

Sadly. am on the bend again but still manage just over 6 feet.

The joys of Ankylosing Spondylitis....huh!

Mind you, it has never changed my looks. I was always ugly and still am....lol

Alan - I don't find this at all boring. In fact, I'm incredibly interested and I'm sure many other are also. This happened to you quite a long time ago and many of us are relative newcomers. I realize from hunting through some of your posts from several years ago, that you probably provided lots of helpful detail at the time. However, it's quite difficult to search through many hundreds of pages of posts looking for this stuff.

Personally, I would be extremely pleased to have the opportunity to learn more about what happened to you and how you managed to deal with it, both before and after surgery. The photos on line are amazing and give a powerful sense of what was involved.

If at any point you are in the mood to start a post specifically about the any details of the surgery and pre and post issues that you coped with, I would be very interested to read. Of course, this is asking a lot and you may not want to be bothered or not have the time to respond to such a request. I wonder how easy it is in KickAS to provide links to such posts from the past.

Anyway, mostly what I wanted to say is that "usually bore folks to death" does not apply to me. I am interested and very grateful to you for your willingness to share. Although I don't have AS, I am aware that, with RA, I am facing the risk of seriously deformed joints and/or joint replacements in the future. The spinal surgery sounds much more scary than, say, a hip replacement but still there is something about reading and absorbing this kind of information that makes it less terrifying to me - a kind of normalizing that happens as you learn how people cope and what is involved.

Long-winded way of saying "thanks - I appreciate your sharing and would be happy to learn more".

Wendy are you actually inviting me to talk about myself? Wow, well as you all know I am a reticent talker, shy modest and winsome...........but for you and the benefit of mankind in general welll.............errrr ok you persuaded me....lol

Of course I will be delighted to recount if not to dull and grim, I do love talking about it all because I consider that I was one of life's lucky ones.....where to begin though..........ok

When I was 18, I joined the Nottingham City Police.

I had had some teinges in my body for a while, but at that age thought little of them and thought they might go away, as probably all of us would. Having finished police training I was put 'On the beat' You will know about that phrase, perhaps our western colleagues may not anyway put on patrol. Because I was new novice like, I was first put on night duty. Was thought I couldn't do a lot of harm there and would accustom me to the job. 10.00pm until 6.00am At 4.00 am I could barely walk. Pains, severe in hips and thighs, I mean really severe. Well it was because I had been walking all night and would get used to it no doubt! I darent complain about it, being a policeman was a drea I had long cherished, so kept quiet, for a year or two. The pain though refused to stay quiet and got worse and worse until I was forced to take a week off. Whoah.......we dont have time off said the 9 foot sergeant who arrived at my home 10 minutes after I had reported in sick. Out of bed let me see you walk around. Was then that I realised fully about morning stiffness. I could not get out of bed, pain was screaming etc. He still though considered me a faker. And so it went, The doc had to be called he kneeled on my bed and bounced about a bit and found the bed guuilty as charged of being soft and no good for backache thereby prescribing codamol for me and a new mattress for the bed!

Alan this is realy interesting to me having just been told im not bad enough for surgury becuase the risk is too great.Looking at your photos I would say im probably a bit worse than you were Ive also lost 6inches looked every were but cant find it. I can tell im deteriating fast by the way im walking and by all the people who look at me like im an alien.Kevin.

Yes - the old "wen de red red robin..." I was subjected to that at school quite a bit but it doesn't bother me at all now. So sing along... Curiously my husband's name is Robin so he got the song as well! We are now "Wendy and Robin - wen de an robin..."

Fascinating story and you tell it with all your wit and charm - can't wait for each installment. Of course, I understand the "Bobby on the beat" having grown up with Dixon of Dock Green.

I already have a hilarious image of said doctor bouncing on the bed. For the audience here in North America - doctors really did make home visits back then and were even willing to test out the state of the bed.